Six into Ten is a step in the dark

Gabriel Fallon's DUBLIN DIARY
Y the time these words appear in print the people of .Ireland's 26 counties will have said "Yes" or "No" to the invitation to join the E.E.C. Not all the people. of course; for many are so bemused by the conflicting political voices that they simply don't know what to say.
If the final verdict is "Yes" — and at the moment this seems likely — it will not come from any clear conviction that this is the right step to take. It will simply mean that a political majority, this time Fianna Fail, Fine Gael, has won the day. The loudest speakers will carry the field.
David O'Mahoney, Professor of Economics at University College, Cork, is perfectly right when he tells us that a decision either way will be "a step in the dark."
Pointing out that the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland already form something in the nature of an economic community, and he goes on to say that if both Britain and the Republic join the E.E.C. a new situation in which Ireland will find itself will differ more in degree than
in kind from that in which it is now in relation to Britain.
"What will really happen if Britain and Ireland join the E.E.C." he writes, "is that Ireland, instead of being part of a medium-sized economic community, will become part of a large one.
"Very muc:h the same kind of external influences are likely to determine the course of economic development in Ireland, though to some extent these influences may be modified by the policies and in stitutions for which there are no parallels in the Anglo-Irish community." There will be advantages and disadvantages.
But whether the latter will issue in higher prices, lower wages, unemployment, emigration, and the probability of conscription, as the jeremiads of the "No" parties assure us they will, it is impossible to say. The great weakness of the prophets of doom is that they have failed to put forward a reasonable alternative.
One of the most interesting points of view is that put forward by Mr. Sean MacBride S.C. "Membership of the European Community will also widen our horizons and make us less insular. To be insular in a purely Gaelic sense would be understandable even if it were not practical.
"But that is not the choice open to us: we are now being engulfed more and more into an Anglo-American pseudocivilisation. Our only escape is to balance this virtual monopoly with the influence of French, Italian and Scandinavian cultural standards. Our Irish identity is much more likely to survive."
Deserted
MR. LYNCH'S newly-formed Dail Committee con
sisting of members of the three principal political parties Fianna Fail, Fine Gael and Labour set up to examine the implications of a United Ireland gives some reason for hope that in the long run discussion may replace violence. The immediate reaction from Northern Ireland Ministers is understandably bitter. What they needed from Mr. lynch, they said, was not advice from the Republic, but action "against the terrorist organisations who forcibly
operated from that country in their campaign of murder and disruption in Ulster."
For the first time in their lives they feel out in the cold, disbanded and deserted by Britain, without even the support that was once offered them by a British Army mutiny. Indeed, they accuse Mr. Heath of allowing the British Army to stand idly by therefore permitting "areas of the United Kingdom to be ruled by gun law."
"He (Mr. Heath) has tried to disclaim responsibility for the no-go areas. We wish to make it clear that the Northern Ireland Government, since August 1969 has urged most strongly the need to make all areas of Northern Ireland subject to normal law and policing."
Mr. Heath should have a care. The forerunners of •these Northern Ministers threatened once upon a time to kick King George V's crown into the Boyne. And what with Vanguards, Tartan Boys, Blackguards and privately drilling armies, anything could happen today.
It is true that Mr. Heath doesn't wear a crown; perhaps he should look to his yacht!